Damp proofing external walls help

MikeJXE

annieb1981 said:

MikeJXE said:

It's difficult to work out the best course of action not being able to see, What does the surveyor suggest ? He should be your best bet. 

Depending on where the floor is, where the DPC is,  cleaning out the cavity may not solve the problem 

Is the cavity filled with insulation if so what type ?

He did say best advice is remove bricks and treat the problem from the cavity 😬 clear out and bitumen paint on inside of cavity. The insulation is the beads and are loose. A reputable builder said he felt the bridging of moisture due to the debris was a culprit too so I guess we might have to do a bit of everything. Actually fills me with dread. We wouldn’t have known the effects until the moisture sitting in the carpet. Underneath is bone dry. not even any excess condensation on windows either. One day we literally thought there had been a leak and I took off skirting and lifted the carpet. All was dry but there were very damp patches on top of carpet. Thought my mind was going because couldn’t explain and have put it down to all these other issues. Damp meter definitely picking up the damp in the brick when we exposed an area after taking of skirting and the camera showed the debris. 

Did you not think to ask him

How are you expected to clear out the cavity without removing the bead insulation also 

Plus how are you expected to paint inside a cavity 

How long is the wall in question 

How low is the floor in relation to the DPC

annieb1981

MikeJXE said:

annieb1981 said:

MikeJXE said:

It's difficult to work out the best course of action not being able to see, What does the surveyor suggest ? He should be your best bet. 

Depending on where the floor is, where the DPC is,  cleaning out the cavity may not solve the problem 

Is the cavity filled with insulation if so what type ?

He did say best advice is remove bricks and treat the problem from the cavity 😬 clear out and bitumen paint on inside of cavity. The insulation is the beads and are loose. A reputable builder said he felt the bridging of moisture due to the debris was a culprit too so I guess we might have to do a bit of everything. Actually fills me with dread. We wouldn’t have known the effects until the moisture sitting in the carpet. Underneath is bone dry. not even any excess condensation on windows either. One day we literally thought there had been a leak and I took off skirting and lifted the carpet. All was dry but there were very damp patches on top of carpet. Thought my mind was going because couldn’t explain and have put it down to all these other issues. Damp meter definitely picking up the damp in the brick when we exposed an area after taking of skirting and the camera showed the debris. 

Did you not think to ask him

How are you expected to clear out the cavity without removing the bead insulation also 

Plus how are you expected to paint inside a cavity 

How long is the wall in question 

How low is the floor in relation to the DPC

I think said builder is avoiding us to be honest because everytime we had him in before it’s been a really difficult job so he has said that he just doesn’t have the time/man power to do the job for us, luckily for him we can afford to get anyone in anyway! Going by all these questions I feel like I need a professional to do the job, and do it right.

MikeJXE

You can't be advised what to do if we don't have all the precise details 

If you live near LE65 I will nip round at no charge to you 

I'm ex builder so could give you some ideas 

FreeBear

annieb1981 said:

FreeBear said:

stuart45 said:

If you clean out the cavity yourself it won't be expensive. You don't need to tank your walls.

Had a cavity here filled with debris that was causing damp problems. Took a few bricks out myself (being a lime mortar, easy enough to do with just a pad saw). Removed several buckets of sand, tile, and cement "snots" before putting the bricks back in.

Depending on when your cavity wall insulation was put in, a binder may have been used to stop the polystyrene pouring out of any holes - Some installers use a glue, others don't.. But you really need to remove the cause of the bridging rather than slapping a bodge over to hide the problem for a few years.

When you removed the bricks how did you support that section of wall? I really worry if we would have the time and ability to do this ourselves 😩 but I do want it done right. how did you know you got everything out?

Took out three to four bricks at a time over two courses. Once one section was clear, replace the bricks, and move on to the next batch.  Fortunately, I only had ~1m to deal with.

annieb1981

FreeBear we would have about 3 metres. Thank you for tips. We have loads to think about now and if it’s something we can actually do ourselves or not.